CAR thieves travelling into Ellesmere Port from outside the county are being targeted by police.

Detective Inspector Mark Tasker said: 'Every part of the town is suffering from this, and it's worrying we can't identify hot-spots.

'We have got people travelling into the area to commit crime and then leaving.

'Not long ago, we had success on the motorway when three people were arrested by patrols after leaving the Port.'

Now, as part of their new Project Autocrime initiative, officers will work with their counterparts in Merseyside and North Wales to target routes into the town.

Other matters discussed at the Ellesmere Port police forum included: A woman from Rivacre Tenant & Residents' Association complained that she made 12 calls to police last Monday evening, and no-one answered. She added: 'Some youths were terrorising elderly residents in the bungalows in our street. I could not get through to the police station here.'

Chief Inspector Barry Travis said that was 'unacceptable' and promised to look into it. He said staff answered most emergency calls to them within 45 seconds. A Strawberry Fields Home Watch co-ordinator asked what was the best way to help police, without 'overstepping the mark or turning to vigilantism'.

CI Travis said it was to become the police's eyes and ears, to record all crimes and youth nuisance and call them with information. A man complained that a car abandoned by youths on Rossmore Fields was not checked for evidence by the police.

He called officers at 7.30am on October 30. No-one came out and the car was later torched.

'It could have provided the police with evidence as to the criminals, but all that's gone now,' the man added. CI Travis was asked where he had put two off-road motorbikes provided to the police.

He answered: 'They are in the garage. We have to comply with Health & Safety rules, and they were too dangerous to use off-road.' A Little Sutton Home Watch coordinator said signs on lamp posts in the area were smashed by yobs.

'It's a terrible thing we have to live with and very expensive for us and the council,' he added. A police surgery will be held at Little Sutton Library on Thursday, November 25 with PC Mark Jenkins. Kath Evans was told that Cheshire could not become autonomous and start making its own laws, independent of Parliament. 'What a pity,' she said. The next forum meeting is on Tuesday, February 3, at Ellesmere Port Civic Hall at 7pm.